Update on COVID-19 in Manitoba coming from health officials this morning
CBC
Manitoba public health officials will give an update on COVID-19 in the province as well as vaccines at a 10 a.m. news conference.
Dr. Jazz Atwal, deputy chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of the province's vaccine implementation task force, and Monika Warren, provincial COVID-19 operations chief for Shared Health, are to speak. CBC News will live stream the news conference here starting at 10 a.m. CT.
The first case of the omicron variant, also known as B.1.1.529, has been detected in Manitoba, the province announced Tuesday.
Omicron was labelled a variant of concern by the World Health Organization at the end of November. Though little is known yet about the variant — including whether it causes more or less severe illness, or whether it can evade previous immunity to COVID-19 — it's been linked to a rapid rise of cases in countries in Europe and southern Africa.
There were four deaths and 93 new cases of COVID-19 reported on the Manitoba online coronavirus dashboard on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Manitoba recorded its highest daily case count in nearly six months, with 211 new cases. The last time the number was higher was June 12, when 294 cases were reported.
In recent days, Manitoba doctors have raised serious concerns about the health-care system's ability to care for the sickest patients, saying the province is running out of resources to treat critically ill patients, mainly due to staffing issues.
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